FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Miller Delivers Floor Speech on
'Deficit of Decency' in America
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) today delivered the following
statement on the floor of the United States Senate addressing several social
issues facing the country:

"The Old Testament prophet Amos was a sheep herder who lived back in the
Judean hills, away from the larger cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
Compared to the intellectual urbanites like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he was just
an unsophisticated country hick.

"But Amos had a unique grasp of political and social issues and his poetic
literary skill was among the best of all the prophets. That familiar quote
of Martin Luther King, Jr. about 'Justice will rush down like waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream' are Amos's words.

"Amos was the first to propose the concept of a universal God and not just
some tribal deity. He also wrote that God demanded moral purity, not rituals
and sacrifices. This blunt speaking moral conscience of his time warns in
Chapter 8, verse 11 of The Book of Amos, as if he were speaking to us today:

That 'the days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in
the land. Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the
word of the Lord.
'And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east.
They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find
it.'

'A famine in the land'. Has anyone more accurately described the situation
we face in America today? 'A famine of hearing the words of the Lord.'

"But some will say, Amos was just an Old Testament prophet - a minor one at
that - who lived 700 years before Christ. That is true, so how about one of
the most influential historians of modern times?

"Arnold Toynbee who wrote the acclaimed 12 volume A Study of History, once
declared, 'Of the 22 civilizations that have appeared in history, 19 of them
collapsed when they reached the moral state America is in today.'

"Toynbee died in 1975, before seeing the worst that was yet to come. Yes,
Arnold Toynbee saw the famine. The 'famine of hearing the words of the
Lord.' Whether it is removing a display of the Ten Commandments from a
Courthouse or the Nativity Scene from a city square. Whether it is
eliminating prayer in schools or eliminating 'under God' in the Pledge of
Allegiance. Whether it is making a mockery of the sacred institution of
marriage between a man and woman or, yes, telecasting around the world
made-in-the-USA filth masquerading as entertainment.

"The Culture of Far Left America was displayed in a startling way during the
Super Bowl's now infamous half-time show. A show brought to us courtesy of
Value-Les Moonves and the pagan temple of Viacom-Babylon.

"I asked the question yesterday, how many of you have ever run over a skunk
with your car? I have many times and I can tell you, the stink stays around
for a long time. You can take the car through a car wash and it's still
there. So the scent of this event will long linger in the nostrils of
America.

"I'm not talking just about an exposed mammary gland with a pull-tab
attached to it. Really no one should have been too surprised at that.
Wouldn't one expect a bumping, humping, trashy routine entitled 'I'm going
to get you naked' to end that way.

"Does any responsible adult ever listen to the words of this rap-crap? I'd
quote you some of it, but the Sergeant of Arms would throw me out of here,
as well he should. And then there was that prancing, dancing, strutting,
rutting guy evidently suffering from jock itch because he kept yelling and
grabbing his crotch. But then, maybe there's a crotch grabbing culture I've
unaware of.

"But as bad as all this was, the thing that yanked my chain the hardest was
seeing that ignoramus with his pointed head stuck up through a hole he had
cut in the flag of the United States of America, screaming about having 'a
bottle of scotch and watching lots of crotch.' Think about that.

"This is the same flag that we pledge allegiance to. This is the flag that
is draped over coffins of dead young uniformed warriors killed while
protecting Kid Crock's bony butt. He should be tarred and feathered, and
ridden out of this country on a rail. Talk about a good reality show,
there's one for you.

"The desire and will of this Congress to meaningfully do anything about any
of these so-called social issues is non existent and embarrassingly
disgraceful. The American people are waiting and growing impatient with us.
They want something done.

"I am pleased to be a co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 26 along with Senator Allard
and others, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States
relating to marriage. And S.1558, the Liberties Restoration Act, which
declares religious liberty rights in several ways, including the Pledge of
Allegiance and the display of the Ten Commandments. And today I join Senator
Shelby and others with the Constitution Restoration Act of 2004 that limits
the jurisdiction of federal courts in certain ways.

"In doing so, I stand shoulder to shoulder not only with my Senate
co-sponsors and Chief Justice Roy Moore of Alabama but, more importantly,
with our Founding Fathers in the conception of religious liberty and the
terribly wrong direction our modern judiciary has taken us in.

"Everyone today seems to think that the U.S. Constitution expressly provides
for separation of church and state. Ask any ten people if that's not so. And
I'll bet you most of them will say 'Well, sure.' And some will point out,
'it's in the First Amendment.'

"Wrong! Read it! It says, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Where
is the word 'separate'? Where are the words 'church' or 'state.'

"They are not there. Never have been. Never intended to be. Read the
Congressional Records during that four-month period in 1789 when the
amendment was being framed in Congress. Clearly their intent was to prohibit
a single denomination in exclusion of all others, whether it was Anglican or
Catholic or some other.

"I highly recommend a great book entitled Original Intent by David Barton.
It really gets into how the actual members of Congress, who drafted the
First Amendment, expected basic Biblical principles and values to be present
throughout public life and society, not separate from it.

"It was Alexander Hamilton who pointed out that 'judges should be bound down
by strict rules and precedents, which serve to define and point out their
duty.' Bound down! That is exactly what is needed to be done. There was not
a single precedent cited when school prayer was struck down in 1962.

"These judges who legislate instead of adjudicate, do it without being
responsible to one single solitary voter for their actions. Among the
signers of the Declaration of Independence was a brilliant young physician
from Pennsylvania named Benjamin Rush.

"When Rush was elected to that First Continental Congress, his close friend
Benjamin Franklin told him 'We need you. . . we have a great task before us,
assigned to us by Providence.' Today, 228 years later there is still a great
task before us assigned to us by Providence. Our Founding Fathers did not
shirk their duty and we can do no less.

"By the way, Benjamin Rush was once asked a question that has long
interested this Senator from Georgia in particular. Dr. Rush was asked, are
you a democrat or an aristocrat? And the good doctor answered, 'I am
neither'. 'I am a Christocrat. I believe He, alone, who created and redeemed
man is qualified to govern him.' That reply of Benjamin Rush is just as true
today in the year of our Lord 2004 as it was in the year of our Lord 1776.

"So, if I am asked why - with all the pressing problems this nation faces
today - why am I pushing these social issues and taking the Senate's
valuable time? I will answer: Because, it is of the highest importance. Yes,
there's a deficit to be concerned about in this country, a deficit of
decency.

"So, as the sand empties through my hourglass at warp speed - and with my
time running out in this Senate and on this earth, I feel compelled to speak
out. For I truly believe that at times like this, silence is not golden. It
is yellow."